Price Paid:  $2700.00 from Sears

Summary:
First projection tv was a Mitshubishi 47" was very unhappy and exchanged for the Hitachi 53SWX. The whites are brighter and blacks are better than the Mits. Great tv, picture is perfect with DVD's and very good on the antenna for normal broadcasts. Only drawback changing channels is slower than a tube tv. The sound is exceptional for normal viewing. But use a Dolby surround systems for DVD. Have had no problems and Sears did the yearly service for no extra cost, but I did buy the 5 year warranty.

Strengths:
Picture quality and sound. Majic focus is ok, but had the tech make manual adjustments.

Weaknesses:
Slow in changing channels.

Similar Products Used:
Mitsubishi 47".

Price Paid:  $2500.00 from big sandy superstore

Summary:
great picture, great built in surround sound, cant say anything bad about tv.

Strengths:
high quality picture and sound

Weaknesses:
none to speak of at this time

Similar Products Used:
sony

Price Paid:  $2749.00 from HH Gregg

Summary:
I purchased this unit in Nov. 2001 and initially, the quality was excellent. Until the power board failed. That was in April. It took approximately 3 weeks to get it replaced and operational. Now, the board has failed again and all I'm getting from HH Gregg and Hitachi is excuses and grief. Apparently, Hitachi is waiting on the part from who knows where, and HH Gregg is a complete waste of a another phone call. Finally, I was told just today that a decision would be made to get me another TV in 48 hours. We;ll see. These companies think its no big deal for consumers to drop a couple of grand on this type of product and if it doesn't work, so be it? Hitachi knows there's a problem with this unit and won't step up and deal with it. Typical...

Strengths:
It was great when it worked.

Weaknesses:
Lousy customer service. Warranty is not worth the paper its printed on. Even the HH Gregg extended warranty would not hold any weight if you ran into this issue. Bottom line, you're taking a gamble if you buy this product.

Similar Products Used:
Sony

Price Paid:  $3000.00 from audio king

Summary:
For the first 6 months the TV was great. Then all the tv started losing its focus. I had it fixed 3 times in home then they finally took it in for repair. When they brought it back the picture was as bad as ever. The repair company said it was within Hitachi "specs" and there was nothing wrong with the picture. They treated me like I was a crazy person. So I called Hitachi and they sided with the repair company. Hitachi and the repair company kept saying that it is within the "specs". Thinking I really was crazy I called a another repair company and had them come out and look at my tv. Alex from Alex Audio and Video in Hopkins, MN had my tv up and running in a matter of a couple of hours. The picture is better then when I bought it new. I still have a issue with a glare when watching movies in the dark. Hopefully Hitachi will look in to this issue this time and help me out.

Strengths:
Great picture when working

Weaknesses:
Hitachi customer service their "certified repair company"

Price Paid:  $2250.00 from Conn's

Summary:
I've waited a long time for this...and I'm certainly not been disappointed. This tv has a glorious picture, I was a bit concerned at first how I would adjust to 16:9, as we move freely from basic cable, to a broadcast antenna, to a Hi-Fi VCR, to my PS DVD player. In short, I needed a Swiss Army Knife TV, and you don't think of a 16:9 projection HDTV as being that sort of cat. But it is. The one feature that makes it all worthile is "Smooth Wide". None of the smoothing modes I've seen on any 16:9 work as well as the one on this Hitachi. You have to look really hard at the edges of the screen, and wait for something to move in or out of frame to see any distortions at all. It's been nothing but wonderful. I heard quality concerns,(mine is 6 months old now and has been VERY well behaved) bought a 5 year warranty from the dealer, who is a big regional player who's been around for years, and has a good rep for CS. The remote is big, yeah, I wish more of the buttons were backlit, but it's no big deal. My only real complaint is the clock has no memory, so every time the power blinks I have to reset the thing. I figured most video appliances were past that by now. I looked at everything available, and to get something close, I was gonna have to shell out at least another $2k. With no SMOOTH WIDE. Tons of inputs, well chosen outputs, easy switching through the remote, each input remembers it's own video and mode settings, which is VERY helpful if you switch around a lot like we do. I'm pleased.

Strengths:
SMOOTH WIDE MODE, SMOOTH WIDE MODE, SMOOTH WIDE MODE! Picture brightness and clarity, even on non-HDTV is sharp and clear.

Weaknesses:
Aahhh, nothing I can't live with. Maybe a few more buttons on the remote that light up. Maybe a backup chip on the clock. That's about it.

Similar Products Used:
Multiple RCA, Sony, Toshiba sets owned by friends and family. All paid more, and got less picture quality and features.